June, 2017

Banking scandals have abounded since the financial crash of 2008. PPI, tax avoidance, FOREX manipulation and LIBOR rigging have all created challenges for relationships between banks, regulators and the public. As a result, the British government has felt impelled to do more. In March 2016 it introduced the Senior Managers Regime (SMR). The intention has been to impose a duty of regulatory responsibility on managers in the sector.

Mark Somers, June, 2017

A former boss of mine in the Army, Brigadier John Deverell CBE, the founder of risk, governance and crisis solutions consultancy Deverell Associates, assesses that SMR now requires a different sort of manager with a different ethos, as he points out at http://www.deverellassociates.com/senior-managers-regime-parallels-british- armys-concept-leadership/.

March, 2017

Most family offices and family firms do not have a crisis management plan. The principal and the CEO will be relying on their ability to see the potential for things going wrong and reacting in good time. But the reality can be very different; an incident can quickly spiral out of control and become a crisis. Then, without a plan in place that allows for an organised response, it may not be possible to get off the back foot.

November, 2011

With Muammar Gaddafi’s death a line has been drawn under his regime, though the fog of war is far from cleared. In the meantime, it has become politically expedient to decry the relationship fostered since 2003 between the last British government and Gaddafi’s regime.

August, 2009

The deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians during Israel’s brutal winter 2008-2009 offensive in Hamas-run Gaza sparked outrage across the world. Yet to the surprise of all—including the Israeli security establishment—the West Bank did not explode in violent protest against the war. After 40 years of occupation it seemed as if many West Bankers had finally lost faith in violent resistance.

Spring, 2009

“By the end of January, when you will have been in Ramallah for a couple of months, you should let us know your objectives – be they ever so modest”. Spoken by Number 10’s Defence and Foreign Policy Adviser, these words were Whitehall’s farewell to me and underlined the broad latitude within which I was to operate, in what was a new post. I was thus liberated from the Ministry of Defence. I had completed one year there, out of what should have been a 3 year tour as Director of Defence Diplomacy.